“Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting.”
Acts 2:2 NLT
Jesus inaugurated his public ministry reading the prophet Isaiah and announcing the arrival of Jubilee. Pentecost equates to the Feast of the Harvest celebrated seven weeks (49 days) after the second day of Passover. The 50th day reflects Jubilee’s 50 years. Here a free will offering was required. Now the disciples obediently waited of their own free will, available to God.
Jesus initially gathered twelve apostles, symbolic of the twelve tribes of Israel. (This number is significantly re-established with Judas’ replacement during the Jerusalem Novena.) Jesus then commissioned the 70 to go out to gather in the harvest, 70 (or 72) being symbolic of what was then understood to represent all the people groups in the world. The kingdom is available to all who seek it.
At the Last Supper Jesus introduced the new covenant of his body and blood, before himself becoming the sacrificial lamb crucified, risen and ascended, throwing open God’s eternal door of mercy. The Spirit, represented as tongues of fire, is symbolic of God’s leading of his people through the wilderness into the Promised Land, and now the permanent means by which redeemed humanity can retain communication with God. Each of the apostles spoke in a God-inspired language, yet each ‘tongue’ was comprehensible to the gathering crowd. The Church now established as both a gathered and a missional community is a source of God’s presence and a community with a mission to share God’s life.
Pentecost today reminds us of the significance and importance of Church as a gathered community; of its calling, albeit in different forms, to be a place of worship and encounter, a dwelling space for the presence of God. It also renews our responsibility to freely offer ourselves to God’s work of mission, wherever life finds us.
QUESTION
Will you call out to God for a fresh outpouring of his Spirit to renew your intimate communication with God and be empowered for obedient service of God?
PRAYER
Spirit of the living God, Fall afresh on me. Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me. Spirit of the living God, Fall afresh on me.
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